5 Lessons I Learned as a Camp Counselor

Written by McKenna 'Fig' Runde

If there’s one thing I know from my time as a camp counselor, it is that camp changes you. It bolsters your confidence, deepens your laughter, breaks down your walls, creates forever friendships, and changes lives for the better (not just your own)! 

It also empties you of yourself. It requires more self-sacrifice than you may have ever given before. It pushes you past your comfort zone and encourages trust in the working of the Holy Spirit. It stirs a desire in your heart to serve and love boldly. It empties you of yourself and directs you toward something bigger. It’s the best job in the world, and it teaches you some important life lessons.

Here are 5 'simple' things I learned during my time as a camp counselor:

1. See the good in all!

Some campers have a fear of the dark, others have a rough case of homesickness. Some are self-conscious and others are loud and boisterous. We all have our ‘things’ (wounds and weaknesses), and we also all have an incredible innate goodness. After all, we were each created in the image and likeness of God!! Serving as a camp counselor showed me the patience necessary to meet each person where he/she was and see the good in all, regardless of the baggage they carry or the wounds they wear.

2. Really listen

Being a counselor gives you the unique opportunity to grow in relationship with your fellow staff members and the hundreds of campers you’ll encounter throughout a summer. Get to know them. Listen to their stories. Listen to their emotions. Hear them. Everything they’re saying and not saying. They will remember it.

3. It’s not about you

If you’re joining summer staff because you want to have the time of your life and the tan of your life, you might be in for a little perspective shift. This summer is not about you, but it IS about giving of yourself to those around you. You’ll sacrifice and ‘do it all for the campers’ and pour out your heart ... And you might just find that through your gift of self, you end up having the time of your life.

4. Flexibility is key

Very rarely do things go as planned at Camp. That’s part of the beauty and magic of this place! We fly by the seat of the Holy Spirit’s pants! Plans change, storms come, cabin 7 boys lose their camp tee right before the all-camp photo … we roll with it! The best memories come from the unplanned moments.

5. Camp friends are the best friends

Find your people and never let them go! The relationships formed at Camp can withstand any storm … heck, these are the people who have your back when you get 4 hours of sleep with a sick camper. They’re the ones who brush your teeth blindfolded as a fun skit to make the campers roar with laughter. They cry with you in the hard moments and in the moments when your joy is just overflowing.

There were more than a few times in my camp counseling career when I woke up in the back of cabin 3 to a camper knocking on my door and thought to myself, “Wow, I think this is the 16th time I’ve been woken up for a bathroom break tonight.” And there were even more times when I woke up to sunshine and chirping birds and thought, “Wow, this life is a beautiful gift. Thank you, Jesus.” 

Thank you for the time I was given to spend as a camp counselor. Thank you for the memories gained and the lessons learned. Thank you for the people I met and those I grew from. For the tears and the laughter and the songs and the stories. For Your presence, in all of it. Thank you, Jesus.

Take a Little Teka-with-ya

Written by: Rachel 'Cricket' Pischke

I have done a lot of profound, life-changing, and exuberant things in my life. There are many things that I am proud of: special events that brought immense joy and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. However, nothing has tugged at my heart strings, given me hope or brought more comfort and joy to my life than Camp Tekakwitha has. Camp has carried my most treasured moments for more than a decade of my life.

I spent long summers on Loon Lake that felt far too short. We spent nights stargazing with Treble on the waterfront. Days preparing for campers by building an observatory. Long nights by the fire making nickel s’mores and telling recycled scary stories. Afternoons that were so hot we swam all day. 

I watched kids struggle with archery on Monday and saw them hit the target by Friday. I lingered over the smell of the cabin the first night of the summer after a long winter of vacancy. I perfected my pancake-making skills during our Polka Pancake tradition where sprinkles in your pancakes were a novelty. I have memories of berry picking with my very best friends at 6 AM, saving baby bunnies from a wild storm, kayaking until our arms hurt, ducking through the spider tunnel, and eating dinner in the pouring rain.

 

Camp Tekakwitha isn’t just a physical place that I left back in 2016, it’s forever with me. I carry it wherever I go. The memories and lessons I learned there have guided me. As I’ve found myself now in a role with youth programs, I continue to encounter many children every week who have also fallen in love with Camp Tekakwitha, and I get the honor of sharing such a special commonality.

I have brought songs from Camp Tek meals with me all the way to South America. I played the same games that I once played with campers, with orphans in Africa - and I attempted the same crafts I once made at camp, in South America. As I look forward to my future, Camp Tekakwitha and what I learned in its presence will guide my choices for the rest of my life.

I hope that as you continue to experience the powerful joy and peace that dwells within the midst of Camp for the coming summers, that you always remember to take a little teka-with-ya and leave a little of yourself behind.

Camp Tekakwitha: A Ministry at the Peripheries

 

Written by Jack 'Oak' Lawlis

As Catholics, we are missionary disciples by the virtue of our baptism, and are called to proclaim the good news of the Gospel to the world. We have encountered the Lord’s love, and know of the joy that is promised by a life devoted to Christ. This knowledge fuels our mission and efforts towards conversion.  

When embarking on mission, we must ensure that our evangelical efforts reach all people, so that every person may come to know and love the Lord. We must go to the peripheries—the margins of our social and ecclesial communities—so that all might have the opportunity to discover Christ.

During my time at Camp Tekakwitha, I witnessed firsthand a ministry which not only reached those at the peripheries of our society, but also fostered experiences at the peripheries of encounter and faith. We can learn from the ministry of Camp Tekakwitha as we continue on our own journeys as disciples on the way.

 

Mission to the Peripheries

Each summer, Camp Tekakwitha is home to campers of a diverse range of backgrounds and faith traditions. While many campers are practicing Catholics, some have not been introduced to the person of Christ. For these campers, Camp Tekakwitha is often one of the first fully Catholic experiences that they will have.

This initial encounter is not a “typical” introduction to the faith. Through shared experiences of joy and camaraderie, whether it be swimming in Loon Lake, playing slip-and-slide kickball, or spending an evening in Eucharistic Adoration, campers come to know the Lord in one another, and associate the most enjoyable aspects of their lives with their faith.

These communal experiences introduce us to a new aspect of encounter—one that is bolstered by friendship, punctuated by prayer, and which truly exhibits the joy of the Gospel. God calls us together as a people, and it is through these unique and exciting encounters that we walk towards the Lord together, and combat the spiritual pessimism that threatens the faiths of many.

Pope Benedict XVI describes faith as “an encounter with the living God—an encounter opening up new horizons extending beyond the sphere of reason.” I witnessed amazing encounters with the Lord every week for three summers at Camp Tekakwitha, and just as the Pope Emeritus said, these encounters left campers and counselors alike with a new and beautiful understanding of life.  

 

Visible Encounter

Camp Tekakwitha’s phenomenon of encounter is almost formulaic, and is a process through which campers catch their first glimpse as to what a life in Christ is like.

First, campers arrive uncertain, and with reservations. These uncertainties fade as they meet their counselors and cabinmates, who whom they quickly become friends. Then begins a week of great fun and excitement, and campers begin to feel at home. Next, the critical moment occurs. It could be in a kind word, or the example of a counselor, or in a moment of prayer. It is their first encounter with the person of Christ.

A boy from Cabin Seven spends an evening in Camp Tekakwitha’s St. Francis of Assisi Chapel, praying the Rosary with his cabinmates and counselors. He doesn’t know much about the Catholic faith, and his family doesn’t pray often, but he knows enough to respond during the prayers.

As he prays, he feels a calmness in his heart, unlike any he has ever known before. Reflecting on the days prior, on the laughter and excitement with his cabinmates who he has come to know as his best friends, this moment is inseparable from any other experience of joy. His heart opens to the Lord, and he experiences God’s love in its fullness. “This,” he thinks, “is what I desire.”

I’ve seen this experience many times at Camp Tekakwitha, each in a unique and beautiful way, and even in my own life. Camp Tekakwitha creates amazing experiences which bring both campers and counselors to the peripheries and opens their hearts to the Lord. This is the method through which Camp Tekakwitha seeks to lead all people to the Kingdom of God.

When we journey to the peripheries of our faith, we live as disciples for the Lord. Campers, counselors, and families all have a role to play in this effort—and it is through exciting, communal, and unique experiences that we will encounter Christ. By journeying to the peripheries of our communities and our faith in our efforts as missionary disciples, we help all people reach the Lord, and achieve their ultimate good in Heaven.